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WATERBURY, Conn. (May 10, 2019) -- Wilmington University and Dominican College will square off in the final of the 2019 Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) Baseball Championship on Saturday afternoon at Municipal Stadium in Waterbury, Conn. The two squads advanced to Saturday's final by each winning a game on day two of the championship on Friday. WilmU, the No. 2 seed from the South knocked off Dominican (N#2), 5-3, in the day's first game on Friday, while the Chargers had to stick around and play an elimination game later in the afternoon versus Bloomfield College, which they were able to pull out a 3-1 win to set up a rematch with the Wildcats.

Championship Saturday gets started at 12 p.m., with the Wildcats and Chargers squaring off in the final. A Wilmington victory in game one would lock up the CACC crown for the Wildcats, while the Chargers would have to win twice to hoist championship hardware. If Dominican were to be victorious in game one on Saturday, then the "if necessary" game would be held at 3 p.m.

Wilmington and Dominican have met three times during the season with the Wildcats winning all three times, including a doubleheader sweep during the regular season and Friday's victory.

S#2 WILMINGTON 5, N#2 DOMINICAN 3  /  Boxscore
Luke Johnson blasted a three-run homer in the seventh to put WilmU up by a pair, as the Wildcats pulled off the come-from-behind triumph over the Chargers. Johnson's three blast came after the Chargers plated a pair in the top half of the inning to take a 3-2 lead.

Johnson's three-run shot scored Eddie Nevins and Kendall Small on the play. Johnson finished 2-for-4 with four runs batted in during the contest to ignite WilmU's lineup. Small was 3-for-4 with a pair of runs scored and he pitched a scoreless ninth to nail down the save to send the Wildcats to Saturday's final undefeated in tournament play.

Dominican pushed across two runs in the visitor's half of the seventh to take the one-run lead. Joshua Colon smacked an RBI triple to center field, while Brian Sanders added a run-scoring single down the right-field line.

Justin Mears got the win in relief, as he worked a scoreless inning. Zach Frederick posted a scoreless inning of relief as well for the second-consecutive day. Dominican starter Brandon Mology took the loss, as he yielded five runs on 10 hits over 6.1 innings, but discounting the three-run seventh, he turned in a quality start for the Chargers giving them a chance to pull out the victory.

N#2 DOMINICAN 3, N#4 BLOOMFIELD 1  /  Boxscore
Jaden Diaz-Lambert was nothing short of spectacular in his complete-game victory on the mound for Dominican. After yielding an unearned run to the Bears in the top of the first, he responded by retiring the next 11 batters he faced and yielded just two more hits and a pair of walks to spark the Chargers to victory. He struck out eight as well in his complete-game showing.

Benjamin Meza, who got the start behind the plate to spell Brett Karcher-Bowen, delivered a two-run double in the second to give the Chargers all the runs they would need. Dominican tacked on an insurance run in the fifth on a Justin Decker RBI single.

Bloomfield starter Anthony Maldonado was up to the challenge and took the tough-luck loss despite going 7.2 quality innings yielding only two earned runs on seven hits with a pair of strikeouts and only one walk.

ABOUT THE CACC
The Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference is an NCAA Division II Conference composed of 14 institutions in Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. The member institutions are Bloomfield College, Caldwell University, Chestnut Hill College, Concordia (N.Y.) College, Dominican (N.Y.) College, Felician University, Georgian Court University, Goldey-Beacom College, Holy Family University, Jefferson (Philadelphia University + Thomas Jefferson University), Nyack College, Post University of Waterbury, University of the Sciences, and Wilmington University.